The Nigerian police announced, in a statement on Saturday, that at least six people, including four police officers, were killed yesterday, Friday, in an attack by gunmen in Ebonyi state, southeastern Nigeria.
State police spokesman Joshua Okando said that the attack occurred around five in the morning at a police checkpoint on Nuovi Road on the outskirts of Abakaliki city.
He added, “The security forces engaged in a violent confrontation with firearms with thugs,” explaining that “four security personnel paid with their lives, while two civilians were killed and caught in the crossfire.”
Okando explained that the attackers have not been arrested.
Armed violence constitutes one of the security challenges in Nigeria, as the armed forces have been fighting groups of armed bandits in the northwestern and central states, in addition to terrorist groups for 14 years in the northeast of the country.
Friday's attack comes as Nigeria mobilized security forces to try to find more than 250 students kidnapped by gunmen in an attack on a school in the northwest of the country, in one of the largest mass kidnappings in Nigeria in three years.
The kidnapping, which took place on Thursday in Kaduna state, is the second within a week in the most populous African country in which heavily armed criminal gangs constantly target victims in villages, schools, churches, or on highways, to obtain ransom.
A teacher and several residents said that at least 250 students and perhaps 280 were kidnapped. Local authorities in Kaduna confirmed that the kidnapping had occurred at the Korega school, but did not specify the number of kidnapped students, which is currently estimated.
Residents said that at least one person was killed in the attack.
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